General Overview

Whenever a consumer considers making a purchase there are multiple steps involved, including traveling. It could be argued there are more considerations when tourists are considering a trip given the complexity of tourism. In general, the purchase decision-making process involves five steps. First, recognizing a need or desire. Second, searching for information about products that might fulfill the need or desire. Following the information search consumers generally evaluate the alternatives identified. Fourth, a purchase decision is made, which can be to purchase a product or not. Finally, the consumer evaluates the purchase after buying and determining if it fulfilled the need or desire. For products such as computers, smartphones, and other tangible products this is pretty straightforward. However, tourism is an experience derived of many potential services (e.g., attractions and events, transportation, food and beverage, accommodations, and numerous other possibilities) that need to be evaluated simultaneously.

Traveler Decision-Making

There are destinations all over the world for travelers to consider. In tandem, tourists need to think of all of the other services and products they need or desire if they are going to travel somewhere for leisure. Similar to the process of consumer decision making for tangible products, potential leisure tourists. However, Crotts (2000) suggest a slightly different approach for tourists with past experience with a specific destination and first-time visitors. Following the need recognition step, Crotts (2000) suggests tourists with past experience do an internal information search based on that experience. If the internal search is sufficient past visitors might move to the evaluation search. If the internal search is insufficient past visitors will utilize an external search for information. First-time visitors more than likely do not have internal information so will move to an external information search.  The next step is evaluating the options. For tourism this likely is evaluating multiple destinations and comparing and contrasting them. This could begin with several and the traveler(s) might narrow down the number of possible destinations. Hopefully after evaluation the traveler(s) identify a destination and purchase. The purchase phase will likely include multiple aspects or products (e.g., accommodations, transportation, attractions and events, food and beverage, etc.).  Remember the tourism product or experience has multiple products or services. So, a traveler(s) might purchase some things ahead of time (e.g., reserving accommodations and flights) and some when they are about to participate in an activity (e.g., visit a museum). The final step according to Crotts (2000) is purchase evaluation. This is also complex because of all the aspects of the tourism experience. Some experiences might be good and some not so good. When a traveler(s) recognize a need in the future to travel they will likely recall their experience, and this will be part of the internal search for information as the process begins again.

Travel Decision Characteristics

Morrison et al. (2018) offer five traits of the travel decision making process:

• Travel is experiential: not as well defined as tangible products
• Multiple phases: pre-trip planning and purchasing, route to the destination, experiences at the destination, route back home
• Multiple decisions: destination, transportation, F&B, accommodations, etc.
• Uncertainty and risk: not fully going to know what you are getting until you are at the destination, very different from tangible products
• Openness and spontaneity: travel is exploration and tourists might find things to do they were not aware of and planned before getting to the destination

Expected Value/Utility Theory

Inherently, when purchasing any product, including tourism, people think about the value of the product and what they will get from consuming the product, or the utility of the product. This is called expected value/utility theory (Morrison et al., 2018). In tourism the product is cumulative and tourists need to think about the cost, safety, uniqueness, and many other attributes of the destination. As a result, tourists hopefully make rational decisions when purchasing a trip. An example could be utilizing transportation that also serves as an attraction and other elements of the tourism destination product (e.g., a scenic train trip to get from one country in Europe to another). In this example, there is an attraction (i.e., scenery), transportation (e.g., train), perhaps infrastructure such as Wi-Fi, and food and beverage. Such a trip could help maximize the utility of the trip and provide more value for the tourist(s).

Protection Motivation Theory

Any purchase has inherent risk. Perhaps purchasing a leisure vacation and all the aspects of it are more of a risk than other products. Many or most airlines have a cancellation policy whereby depending on when a consumer cancels can get reimbursed all or part of their payment to reserve. Protection motivation theory essentially states if the perceived risk is high, more than likely the purchase will not be made (Morrison et al., 2018). Glusac (2020, November 26) indicates when the COVID-pandemic first began, travel insurance failed consumers because the policies did not include pandemics. The COVID-pandemic caused quite a bit of risk in tourism from people being stranded at a destination or on a cruise ship, having to cancel on short notice, and even get infected with COVID in a foreign country. During the COVID-pandemic awareness of travel insurance drastically increased and in 2023 is estimated at $3.8 billion in the United States. Mordor Intelligence (2023) estimates in the first two months of 2022, travel insurance sales increased 275.0% over the same period in 2021. A few months after the first two months of 2022 travel restrictions began to loosen. However, people were/are still cautious and to minimize the risk willing to purchase travel insurance. Following all of the challenges of travel and insurance during COVID, the travel insurance industry now has new policies covering COVID and some countries require international tourists to have such an insurance policy (Glusac, 2020, November 26). As countries began loosening travel restrictions, Draper and DeFranco (2023) found U.S. residents planning to travel internationally are likely to purchase cancellation/interruption, emergency medical, and baggage insurance if traveling in 2023 and 2024-2025.

Theory of Consumption Values

The theory of consumption values explains why people purchase or not and why a certain product and not others (Sheth et al.. 1991). There are five consumption values:

• Functional value: perceived value about the function or utility of a product or service compared to alternatives
  • What attributes of the product will provide utility (e.g. pool at the hotel)?
• Social value: perceived value based on specific social groups
  • What will your friends, relatives, other social groups think about where you travel and what you do?
• Emotional value: perceived value about feelings one might receive from the product
  • Will the vacation deliver certain affective characteristics (e.g., relaxation?)
• Epistemic value: perceived value of the product to provide curiosity, novelty, and/or knowledge
  • Example could be learning about another culture
• Conditional value: perceived value of a product given a specific situation or circumstances of a consumer
  • An example could be going to a destination during non-peak season because it is cheaper and the traveler(s) do not have the discretionary income for peak season

Traveler’s Buying Process

Similar to other consumer decision/purchasing making models, Morrison et al. (2018) provide one a bit more specific to traveler’s buying process:

• Attention and awareness: potential travelers may be unaware of a potential destination
  • Mass media is where potential travelers will get their information and make an initial assessment
  • Destinations seek to remain in the consumer’s options by hopefully showing they can fulfill their needs
• Knowledge and comprehension: if potential traveler’s attention is gained they will seek more information
  • Media is still important but potential travelers but more than likely they are looking for more specific information compared to the previous stage
• Interest and liking: if the two previous stages are successful potential travelers are likely to be interested in the specific destination(s)
• Evaluation and preference: most effective advertising here is testimonials and destinations get very creative with these (e.g., My Houston campaign with Jim Parsons, ZZ Top, and others)
• Intention and conviction: potential traveler of the benefits of purchasing and visiting the respective destination
• Purchase and action: purchase is likely but there might still be barriers
  • Money (if a barrier potential traveler might seek alternatives such as packaged tours, cheaper accommodations, etc.)
  • Time (perhaps getting to a destination where one is leaving on a cruise is an issue, but traveler can look into fly-cruise package)
• Adoption and advocacy: potential traveler visits, has a good time and needs were fulfilled, so they might become a repeat visitor of the destination

Within this process there could be what is referred to as cognitive dissonance, which is essentially anxiety about the choice the potential traveler made. This could arise from after booking thinking about other options that also looked good. Taking a vacation/leisure trip is also an important decision and one might start thinking again about the cost and perhaps they should not have committed by purchasing. Another possibility is after they book they find out about other options, which could be other accommodations, attractions, etc. at the destination or they find out about another destination they did not consider during the buying process. The anxiety tends to be more likely and higher shortly after the potential traveler(s) books the trip.

Travel Information and Decision Support

Potential travelers depend on information to make a decision that meets their needs. Vogt and Fesenmaier (1998) updated a previous model. They suggest consumers have behavioral traits that leads to the roles different information provides. They suggest five roles or values of information:

• Functional value: information helps increase knowledge and reduce uncertainty
• Hedonic value: Morrison et al. (2018) explain this as “phenomenological, experiential, sensory, and emotional purposes” (p. 334)
• Innovation value: the experience will be novel and something you cannot experience where tourists live
• Aesthetic value: you can visualize or imagine what the actual experience will be like
• Sign value: if you begin to share information, discuss with friends/relatives (i.e., social), and you feel it increases your status (i.e., symbolic)

Inherently, travel behavior and the availability of travel information is going to change over time. Choe et al. (2017) examined how information communication technology (ICT) (e.g., mobile technology) drastically changed the information search process of travelers. According to Xiang et al. (2015b) the Internet began to change how people plan and book travel around 1995 when WebCrawler was invented to provide the first web-based search platform. Shortly after Amazon, Expedia, and Travelocity were created (Xiang et al., 2015b). Xiang et al. (2015a) suggests travel planning is part of the tourism experience and with IT gives potential visitors a glimpse of the experience of visiting a destination.

With all of the technology advancements since the Internet was developed Choe et al. (2017) examined how IT has changed information needs (e.g., hedonic, functional, etc.) of travelers both before and during a trip. The study found that hedonic, innovation, experiential, and sign information needs are more important during a trip compared to a study (Vogt & Fesenmaier, 1998) conducted early during the Internet-era. Choe et al. (2017) identified functional information needs to be important before the trip (i.e., planning). Technological advancements (e.g., smartphones) enable tourists easy access to information both before and during a trip. For example, compared to prior to the advanced technology, tourists can post pictures during their trip to social media. Prior to the advanced technology, if tourists wanted pictures to share they had to have film developed and might wait until they get home to do so.

Sensitivity to Information

Since people prefer different types of information and respond to it differently. Morrison et al. (2018) refers to this as sensitivity to information and varies from person to person. Those more interested in taking a vacation are going to more likely recognize information about travel. However, if travelers are familiar with the information already it will be boring, if too complicated or complex it may lead potential visitors to not pay attention to it. Ideally, the information will be aesthetically (e.g., pictures of scenery) pleasing and communication (e.g., written, spoken) at the appropriate level for the potential traveler.

Morrison et al. (2018) offer the following technical issues that can contribute to potential tourist sensitivity:

• Size: larger ads get more attention and are easier to see and read, as well as people tend to recognize larger companies (e.g., Hilton, Chilis) compared to smaller ones
• Colors: potential travelers can associate with colors that represent different things (e.g., clean water in an ocean versus dirty water)
• Intensity: certain things like bright colors and words (e.g., keywords that are somehow highlighted) that standout get potential traveler’s attention
• Moving objects: moving objects get more attention than still ones and can hold the attention longer
• Position: information at eye level will be easier to see than something much lower or higher (e.g., eye level on brochure racks versus at the bottom)
• Contrast: things that stand out from those surrounding it (e.g., here in Houston it might be an art car within many regular cars)
• Isolation: if information is isolated from the majority of information, it will not be seen by as many potential travelers because tendency is to go toward where one can receive more information

Information Bias

Given we all have different interests. perceptions, etc. we all have biases toward information. The perceptions each person has leads to individual behavior (e.g., buy product, travel, don’t travel, etc.). If an individual has personal experiences the bias is less than if recommendation from friend or relative, social media, commercials, etc. The best way to know if someone enjoys something is to have that personal experience.

References

Choe, Y., Fesenmaier, D. R., & Vogt, C. A. (2017). Twenty-five years post Vogt: Assessing the changing information needs of American travellers. In R. Schegg & B. Stangl (Eds.), Information and communication technologies in tourism 2017 (pp. 489-502). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51168-9_35

Crotts, J. C. (2000). Consumer decision making and prepurchase information search. In A. Pizam & Y. Mansfeld (Eds.), Consumer behavior in travel and tourism (pp. 149-168). The Haworth Hospitality Press.

Draper, J., & DeFranco, A. L. (2023). International travel and insurance purchase: The role of traveling companion, household income, travel risk, and sufficient financial resources on this relationship. Tourism Review International, 27(2), 141-157. https://doi.org/10.3727/154427223X1671726538283

Glusac, E. (2020, November 26). What you need to know now about travel insurance. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/article/travel-insurance-coronavirus.html

Morrison, A. M., Lehto, X. Y., & Day, J. G. (2018). The tourism system (8th ed.). Kendall Hunt.

Sheth, J. N., Newman, B. I., & Gross, B. L. (1991). Why we buy what we buy: A theory of consumption values. Journal of Business Research, 22, 159-170.

US travel insurance market size & share analysis – growth trends & forecasts (2023-2028). (2023). Mordor Intelligence. https://www.mordorintelligence.com/industry-reports/us-travel-insurance-market

Vogt, C. A., & Fesenmaier, D. R. (1998). Expanding the functional information search model. Annals of Tourism Research, 25(3), 551-578.

Xiang, Z., Magnini, V. P., & Fesenmaier, D. R. (2015a). Information technology and consumer behavior in travel and tourism: Insights from travel planning using the internet. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 22, 244-249. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretconser.2014.08.005

Xiang, Z., Wang, D., O’Leary, J. T., & Fesenmaier, D. R. (2015b). Adapting to the Internet: Trends in travelers’ use of the web for trip planning. Journal of Travel Research, 54(4), 511-527. https://doi.org/10.1177/0047287514522883